Writer & Unabashed Dog Lover

All posts filed under: Monthly Updates

Water lilies are fantastic, aren’t they? Just look at the gorgeous coloration someone captured in this spot. Spectacular! The vibrancy just makes my heart sing for the beauty of it. There’s nothing hidden in a water lily, she is fully alive and reveling in glory, a queen of aquatic plants, but always glancing up, towards her Creator. Were that we were all like she. Currently Reviewing Nothing new for the month of June. Currently Editing This month’s issue of The Scribe features a woman testing the durability of the Missouri Botanical Gardens’ legendary (at least locally) giant water lily pads. The Gibson Girl sylph, as I like to think of her, looks prepared to give the musical performance of her life, and I sort of wonder whether the gentleman in the background is at hand, just in case anything goes wrong. If you’re interested, click here to read the June 2017 issue. Currently Writing It’s been a busy few weeks as I’ve begun (and finished) writing both of the reviews due for this month and …

Currently Reviewing Still reading the two books I mentioned last month as most of my free time is being spent compiling an anthology for my local writer’s guild. The May issue of Historical Novels Review is now available and you’ll find my review of For the Record by Regina Jennings in print and online. Currently Editing The May 2017 issue of The Scribe is out, click here for your reading pleasure. Now working on the June 2017 issue which I hope will be at least partially Gateway Con-centric. Currently Writing Not doing a ton of writing right now to be honest, focused almost entirely on the aforementioned anthology and preparing for a move. With next month’s conference coming up, hopefully June, while busy, will at least have more of interest to discuss. As an aside, last month (after posting), I did have the opportunity to visit some various parts of the Midwest (Kentucky, Ohio) and had a wonderful time. If anyone I met is reading this post, thank you again for your hospitality!

Currently Reviewing More like… mailbox watching. The new lists are out and I’ve gotten not one, but TWO new reads, hurrah! The Secret of the India Orchid by Nancy Campbell Allen and Shine Like the Dawn by Carrie Turansky. Don’t they look lovely? I can’t wait to get started! Currently Editing The April 2017 issue of The Scribe is now available here for your reading pleasure. At work on the May issue at present. Currently Writing I finished my little poem which I mentioned back in January 2017, based on a roleplaying game I occasionally haunt. Less and less these days, but still. April also marks the opening of the guild’s annual poetry contest (because April is guess what? Poetry month!) so… I entered. My first time since childhood entering a legit poetry contest. We’ll see whether anything comes of it but I was delighted to be able to craft a piece of work, outside of a scholastic setting, that I felt confident enough in its merit to be open to sharing it with others, …

Not much of interest in the month of March, but read on if you like. Currently Reviewing Well, around Valentine’s Day last month, I found out that I’ll be receiving the latest book by Regina Jennings, For The Record. I’ve previously reviewed two other titles of hers for HNR, most recently including At Love’s Bidding (review published in HNR #77, August 2016) and a short story of hers that appeared in an anthology titled A Match Made in Texas, (review published in HNR #68, May 2014). She’s been a reliable author so I’m confident that I won’t have any problems getting through reading one of her books and providing an honest, fair review. Currently Editing Just finished The Scribe March 2017, which you can read here, if interested. Now working on the April issue. I’m really digging the space-age cover that Brad found, which is the interior of one of the pods at the Arch. Currently Writing Still mulling over that poem, I promise.

Not much to post this month, but you can check out my coverage of the TV show, Emerald City, which began last month and is running until March 5th’s finale. Currently Reviewing No new book lists yet! Currently Editing We’ve released the February 2017 issue of The Scribe, so now I’m working on the March 2017 issue and will try to keep ahead of schedule from here on out. If interested, you can view the February 2017 issue here. Currently Writing Stumped on that poem of mine. Taking a break to mull it over.

All quiet on the homefront. January is a time for keeping close to home, burrowed in a nest of blankets, with the flicker of candlelight, an excellent book, and a cup of your favorite beverage. Reviewing Nothing new for the month of January. The new book lists generally come out the same month as the latest issue so hopefully next month I’ll have an update here. Currently Editing I just finished working on the January 2017 issue of The Scribe. With the new year, my editor and I are aiming towards releasing the current month’s issue at the beginning of the month, instead of the following month when the news will be outdated. I’m really excited about the covers that our designer, Brad R. Cook, is doing this year — all public domain, all black & white, all St. Louis-centric, which should be great for highlighting our local treasures.; If you’d like to take a look at the issue, you can download it here. Currently Writing I’ve stumbled onto a reference in a historical document …

On Sunday, my family began the holiday pastime of Advent, a liturgical tradition that my Catholic-raised father and Lutheran-raised mother introduced into my childhood and that carried over into my Catholic-Evangelical marriage. The Advent wreath, which is the center of our tradition’s focus, has four candles, each lit on a successive week (until all four are lit at the same time) and a fifth candle in the middle, representative of “the light of God entering the world” through the Nativity. The individual weeks represent: Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. This year, more so than in years past, God has opened my eyes to the pain of my neighbors and to the uncertainty that many Americans are facing every day (myself included). Coming to know the struggles that everyday people are facing, some of them faceless strangers that I could call neighbors by their proximity to where I spend most of my time, well, it’s absolutely heartbreaking. And scary. And it makes me angry too. It doesn’t feel like there’s a whole lot of hope, peace, joy or …